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The New York Times had a major article reporting on how many people in South Korea, Hong Kong, and Japan are being forced to work well into their seventies because they lack sufficient income to retire. The piece presents this as a problem of aging societies, which will soon hit the United States and other […]

The post Contrary to What the NYT Tells You, the Problem in An Aging Society is Distribution appeared first on Center for Economic and Policy Research.

Is the Obstruction of Justice Caucus Why is this unsurprising? Newly elected House Speaker Kevin McCarthy gave away the store he’s so desperate to manage. Here’s what CNN reports he promised GOP extremists in exchange for their votes: Kyle Cheney scrutinizes the proposed GOP bill to establish that Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. Those provisions did not appear in earlier versions, Cheney notes. Marcy Wheeler (emptywheel) adds, “A Jim Jordan drafted document allowing for the interference into ongoing criminal investigations is what got Scott Perry, Matt Gaetz, Paul Gosar, and Andy Biggs — all of whom sought pardons — to allow McCarthy to get a gavel.” “I would like it be presented as the scandal it is,” Wheeler continues. “But have very little hope in the competence or integrity of many congressional reporters.” I’m already looking for any deus ex machina than can spare the republic from the MAGA arsonists before the battle over raising the debt ceiling spawns a global financial crisis this fall. Jack Smith is one, possibly. Fulton Co., Ga.

Use to discuss topics unrelated to recent posts.

Biden's going to have to mint the trillion dollar coin.

Left-wing president shows what can happen with political will to do what’s right for ordinary people New Brazilian president Lula da Silva is reversing the cuts to Brazil’s health programme imposed by right-wing former president Jair Bolsonaro. Da Silva, who won the presidential election at the end of October despite extensive right-wing attempts to rig […]

Maybe it has to do with the show's deal with Disney, but the BBC's Doctor Who is out to prove to "someone" it can do superhero things, too.

Also, a new wealth tax, clean energy could soon outcompete gas plants, abortion pills are becoming more accessible, a major media company is banning fossil fuel ads, and more.

Someone’s shooting at Democratic politicians’ homes, offices It’s called the Dark Corner. In the remote foothills of extreme northeast Greenville County, South Carolina, it was a region known for hidden moonshine stills even one hundred years after the Civil War. Occasionally the Dark Corner made the news at 11. Someone would pump a 12-gauge round through a local’s front door and drive off. No one ever seemed to get hurt. Family feuds were still a thing in the Dark Corner. This is different. And similar. Let’s pray it gets no worse (Associated Press): Bullets flew through one home’s front door and garage. At another home, three bullets went into the bedroom of a 10-year-old girl in a series of shootings that had at least one thing in common: They all targeted the homes or offices of elected Democratic officials in New Mexico. Nobody was injured in the shootings that are being investigated by local and federal authorities. Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina said they’re working to determine if the attacks that started in early December and were scattered around the state’s largest city are connected.

Meritocracy has become an empty idea in America. That's a problem.

He was promised his freedom, but, with no U.S. pressure, his host country systematically denied him any semblance of normal life.

The post Sabri al-Qurashi Has Lived Without Legal Status in Kazakhstan Since His 2014 Guantánamo Release appeared first on The Intercept.

Slacker Saturday!

Growing crops to make plastic may theoretically reduce reliance on fossil fuels, but at an enormous environmental cost.

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Back in the Paleolithic days of blogging, I got interested in the relationship between philosophical thought and political action, particularly in the cases of Hayek and Heidegger and their support for Pinochet and Hitler respectively. I think the evidence is in on Hayek (see here and here), so I won’t discuss it further. In Heidegger’s […]

Back in the Paleolithic days of blogging, I got interested in the relationship between philosophical thought and political action, particularly in the cases of Hayek and Heidegger and their support for Pinochet and Hitler respectively. I think the evidence is in on Hayek (see here and here), so I won’t discuss it further. In Heidegger’s […]

Contrary to the popular perception of Los Angeles as a youth paradise, with surfing and an “endless summer” of partying, LA in the 1960s was a hothouse of activism. The book Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties by American Marxist Mike Davis and Jon Wiener is its history.

The post LA’s 1960s rebellion a guide to the fire next time appeared first on Solidarity Online.

The post Video of the Day – Guardian Football, 2022 appeared first on Blogtor Who.

Towards the end of Dreamers and Schemers, his ‘political history of Australia’, Frank Bongiorno tells us that the term ‘democracy sausage’ first entered public discourse in 2012. The date, he suggests, is significant, for while the coinage seemed on one level to speak to the relaxedness and egalitarianism of the Australian electorate, and even to a sense of celebration and fun as regards the institutions of democracy, its introduction coincided with a sharp decline in public trust in politicians and the political process.

In How to Rule Your Own Country, Harry Hobbs and George Williams consider the phenomenon of micronations, which is to say territorial entities whose members claim independence or sovereignty but which lack diplomatic recognition.

Rock on.

Michelle Pini spoke to Federal Opposition Leader, former Queensland drug cop and international teen heart-throb, Peter Craig Dutton, about how he is going to make Australia great again. read now...